


Game Face

by kingdra (aroceu)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Video & Computer Games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-10
Updated: 2014-11-10
Packaged: 2018-02-23 14:53:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2551637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aroceu/pseuds/kingdra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Hey, your game thing is green!" Kuroo grabs at it before Kenma can. "What are you playing? You have someone new at your gate? I don't see any gate."</p><p>"Stop it," whines Kenma, pawing at him.</p><p>Kuroo keeps it out of his reach. "Oh! That's the gate. Huh. It doesn't look like a gate. And—ooh, you StreetPassed Shoyo five times now! 'I'd like to visit your town'? What does that mean?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Game Face

**Author's Note:**

  * For [viridianova](https://archiveofourown.org/users/viridianova/gifts).



> I'm a fuckin nerd

Kenma's red 3DS XL flashes green, and then stills. Kenma glances at it from his laptop. No one's come into the coffee shop, so it must be a passerby. He usually doesn't check his StreetPass until the beginning of class, and the essay he's working on is actually due for the next class, so it doesn't really make a difference.

An hour and a half later when he barely makes it to print out his essay and turn it in to class, he finally settles into his seat, pulls out his 3DS. He's StreetPassed ten people this morning. The incident in the coffee shop slips his mind.

*

Even though his university's big, Kenma manages to StreetPass most of the same people almost every week—probably because he takes the same routes to and from classes every day, and always goes to the same places to eat. Kuroo says he's boring. Kenma just thinks he has good habits.

He needs to take the inter-city train to one of his classes on Thursdays. The train's always a good place to StreetPass people, because some days he gets the same people and other days he gets different ones, depending on where he sits. He doesn't need to look at his 3DS to know that it's flashing green. But he can only check when his next class is over because he usually arrives almost late.

So after his next class, he walks out of the room, cracking his 3DS open, sits by the wall so he can do this before catching the next train home. As per routine, he taps the Mii Plaza app with his stylus, opens up to the gate.

Most of the Miis there are ones he's met before. Once in a while, he'll get someone new, someone he manages to pass before he's filled up his quota.

And even rarer, will meet someone who becomes new to his routine.

_I'm Shoyo from Japan. We've met 2 times now!  
 [You can send a personal greeting with StreetPass the second time you meet someone.]_

_Which greeting?_  
> For everyone  
 > Personal

Kenma stares at his screen.

**_> For everyone_ **

*

When Kenma gets home after being dragged out to "somewhere new" for dinner by Kuroo (who'd only ended up taking him to a downtown barbecue place which was too loud, with Lev. They got drunk and Kenma had to drag them home), he sits cross-legged on his dorm bed, opens his 3DS.

He's StreetPassed some children this time, no surprise. That Shoyo Mii shows up in his Plaza Gate too, and it high-fives Kenma's with an alert of,  _We've StreetPassed each other 3 times now!_

And then the Mii's speech bubble glows pink to show a personal message.

_i like ur hat!_

Kenma stares; his own Mii is wearing an ice cream hat. The Shoyo Mii has a Kirby cap, so it's hard to tell what kind of hair it has. He's wearing an orange shirt and has cheerful animated eyes. Kenma tries to rack his brain if he actually knows who this is.

 _Which greeting?_  
> For everyone  
 >  **Personal**

Kenma taps the back of his stylus against his chin.

_thx. i like urs too_

_*_

He doesn't think about it too much during the week, although each time he sees that his 3DS is green he wonders faintly if he's StreetPassed this Shoyo person.

The next time the orange-clad, Kirby hatted Mii arrives at his plaza gate, it's the middle of the day on Wednesday and Kenma has opened up his 3DS during lunch. His eyes might get a little wider when he sees Shoyo's Mii show up in his plaza. He taps his R button impatiently.

Shoyo's speech bubble turns pink.

_^^ u play acnl?_

Kenma does remember that the last thing he played this morning before shutting his 3DS and going to class was Animal Crossing. To be honest, he has too many games to count; but he'd downloaded Animal Crossing to make it more convenient to check his town.

Shoyo's "Currently Playing" is Animal Crossing: New Leaf, too.

_yea_

He sends the message, watches Shoyo's Mii go through the Plaza Gate and then move onto the next one. He wonders who he is.

*

"Hey, nerd!" Kuroo throws a wadded up piece of paper at Kenma as Kenma leaves his classroom, fixated on his 3DS. He looks up to glare at Kuroo.

"Thanks."

"Walk with me back to my dorm," says Kuroo, picking up the paper he had thrown. He crinkles it open. Kenma sees that it's a response paper with a perfect mark on it. "I forgot something for my next class."

"Beh," says Kenma.

"We can get lunch together afterward," says Kuroo. And then: "I'll pay."

So Kenma tags along.

At Kuroo's dorm, Kenma flops onto his bed as Kuroo rifles through his desk for—something, whatever he'd forgotten. Kuroo says, "Hey, you're gonna get my bed dirty!" but Kenma ignores him. He reaches into his backpack for his phone to check for any new messages. His 3DS falls out.

Kenma doesn't really pay it any mind until Kuroo comes over and says, "Hey, your game thing is green!" He grabs at it before Kenma can. "What are you playing? You have someone new at your gate? I don't see any gate."

"Stop it," whines Kenma, pawing at him.

Kuroo keeps it out of his reach. "Oh! That's the gate. Huh. It doesn't look like a gate. And—ooh, you StreetPassed Shoyo five times now! 'I'd like to visit your town'? What does that mean?"

"Give it." Kenma snatches his 3DS out of Kuroo's hands.

Kuroo says, "Are you making weird friends with your video games? You know what they say about people online—"

"You can't meet people online if you're  _StreetPassing_  them," Kenma says, checking his 3DS. Luckily, Kuroo hadn't gotten to the part with the personal greetings. Internally Kenma breathes out a sigh of relief.

_cool do u hav fe_

"Oh, well I'm sorry," says Kuroo sarcastically.

Kenma punches his shoulder. "Let's get lunch. I'm hungry."

As they walk out, it occurs to Kenma belatedly that this Shoyo person was someone he'd passed on his way from class to Kuroo's dorm.

*

 _whats fe_ , is the message he gets the sixth time they StreetPass each other, and Kenma replies,  _fire emblem_.

Somehow they manage conversation between weeks and limits of sixteen characters, ranging from how amazed Shoyo is at Kenma's completed puzzle gallery and large range of hats to how Shoyo's favorite color is not orange but had been selected by his friend as a "joke" and he'd been too lazy to change it.

Once Kenma accidentally slips up and selects the  _For everyone_  option instead of  _Personal_ , sending Shoyo instead  _dont touch me_  rather than what his favorite color is. A couple of days later, Shoyo's Mii has the message of  _i cant touch u!_

_mistake sry. fc?_

That afternoon, when Kenma checks his Mii Plaza, he gets Shoyo's friend code.

He copies it to a piece of paper and then adds it to his friends instantly. Shoyo's Mii appears, light brownish hair, spiked; but he'd mentioned that his Mii isn't accurate to what he looks like. Kenma wonders what he looks like. He wonders if he's seen Shoyo before, briefly.

*

A couple of nights later, Kenma's lying on his bed when his 3DS light flashes orange. He goes to his home screen and taps his friends list. Shoyo's avatar is there, with a speech bubble that says

 _Currently Playing  
Animal Crossing: New Leaf_.

Kenma exits out of Super Smash Bros. 4 immediately.

He goes to Animal Crossing, starts up his game. Belatedly he realizes that he has no way of contacting Shoyo if he's online like this; the only way they can interact with each other is if Shoyo notices that he's online and playing Animal Crossing as well. He's already given Shoyo his friend code; at this point he's surprised they haven't exchanged phone numbers.

In Animal Crossing, he goes to Porter and opens up his gates. Maybe Shoyo will notice, he hopes. He busies himself by rearranging flowers and talking to his favorite villagers so they won't move out. He's long filled up his shopping catalogue and museum.

A blue banner appears across his screen suddenly with  _Looks like someone's visiting your town!_  The 3DS turns black, and then shifts to his town's train station, where an orange-haired avatar disembarks.

Kenma doesn't realize his thumbs are so sweaty until he's managed to navigate his own avatar to outside of his town's train station. He shakily taps the speech bubble on his touch screen.

_hello!_

His avatar does the joy expression.

It takes a bit for Shoyo's avatar to respond, but when he's done typing, his message is,  _!!! IM IN UR TOWN omg its so nice_  and then  _howd u do that?_  Kenma figures he hasn't gotten Club LOL yet.

_when you meet shrunkle! he can teach you expressions  
_ _i've had this game for a while ehehe_

_cool!!!_  says Shoyo's avatar.  _i just got this last month ^-^/_

_do you time travel?_

_what's that?_

Kenma shows Shoyo around his town, and Shoyo accidentally destroys a whole row of flowers. It doesn't bother Kenma too much, even though he'd spent half a day breeding most of them. It's kind of Kenma's fault for having them to be at near destroyable quality, anyway.

Shoyo marvels at his Brewster's and is excited when they go to the island and do some island tours. Kenma wonders if he should ask why his avatar is wearing a skirt. Maybe that's how he is in real life. Kenma could get behind that.

*

They play Animal Crossing with each other all week: through messaging on there, which is a little more convenient, Kenma discovers that it's actually the only game Shoyo has. A couple of nights they get a little too competitive in catching fish together that they don't get offline until two in the morning.

Kenma gets excited each time he sees Shoyo at his Plaza Gate, but even more when he sees him online now.

Kuroo invites him to dinner on the weekend. They end up at the same barbecue place as before. This time, Yamamoto, Yaku, and Shibayama have tagged along, in addition to Lev. So it's noisier now.

They all drink while Kenma sips from his water, glances patiently at his phone. Each time he goes on his 3DS he means to give Shoyo his phone number, and then forgets. He wonders if he'll StreetPass Shoyo on his way home. Or if he has already.

He peeks his 3DS out of his hoodie pocket to see if it's green.

Kuroo shouts, "No video games at dinner!"

Kenma snaps his head back up, glares at Kuroo. "I'm not playing anything. I haven't even opened it."

"But you would've, would you?" Kuroo looks proud of himself. "If I hadn't stopped you."

"I was just checking."

"Checking what?" Yamamoto peers at him.

Kenma tightens his lips together, trying not to look too annoyed. Kuroo answers, "He's been playing with a new friend. Who he's never met before. A  _creepy_  friend."

"He's not creepy," Kenma says defensively, although he has no way of knowing this for sure. He hopes. Shoyo's never given him creep vibes anyway, and Kenma trusts his instincts.

"Ooh!" says Lev. "Who is he?"

Kenma keeps his mouth shut. Kuroo answers for him, "Shoyo, I think. His name's Shoyo, right Kenma?"

Another glare.

Lev says, "There's a Shoyo in one of my classes."

Kenma's head whips around so fast that he actually whacks Kuroo a little in the face with it. Serves him right. "Really?"

"Yeah. Orange hair, short, real excitable?" Lev's eyes glimmer. "Sometimes we talk. I make fun of him for his height."

"When's your class?" Kenma asks.

*

That night, Shoyo's on as if on a schedule and Kenma visits his barren by comparison town because they've agreed to switch off and Kenma likes seeing how Shoyo progresses. Kenma remembers to give him his number this time, and something stupidly warm and jumpy is in his chest when his phone pings with a text from an unknown number, saying,

_its shoyo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D_

Kenma adds the number. They continue playing Animal Crossing, but it's faster for them to text, Shoyo too.

When it gets too late, they agree to get offline but Kenma doesn't want to stop texting him. All they've talked about in his messages history is the cicadas they've caught in Shoyo's town. Shoyo's latest text says,  _cant wait till were at urs next time!!! c:_

Kenma stares at his phone.

_i'd like to meet you._

The reply comes quicker than expected.

_yeah? c: c:_

_would you mind?_

_ofc not!!!! id love to meet u omg. then we can get food together n hang out n play lots of video games together!! also do u like volleyball bc thats the other thing i like doing ehehe_

Kenma's insides feel so warm like he's about to burst.

*

He decides not to tell him and let it be a surprise when he goes to Lev's and apparently Shoyo's class when it lets out, a few days later. Kenma jitters anxiously against the wall. He hopes Shoyo likes him as much in real life as he does virtually.

Lev is easy to spot, but so is the tiny orange-haired kid next to him. He's as short as Kenma is, shouting at Lev for him to give his book back. Lev laughs and says, "Okay, okay, fine," and hands it to him; spots Kenma and says, "Hey Kenma."

"Kenma?" The double take is a blur of orange and Kenma's heartbeat quickens.

He steps forward and says, "Hey Shoyo."

Shoyo stops when he sees him, and it almost feels like slow motion, seeing the confusion flash across his face and then transform into bright eyes, undulating joy. Kenma knows he's never met him before, because this is the sort of thing he wouldn't forget.

"Kenma?" Shoyo exclaims, whipping out his 3DS from his bag. It's small and black and has stickers on the lid, and the light is flashing green. "It is you!" he says, like that's his only way of confirmation.

Kenma's insides are twisting out, relaxing. "Yeah," he says.

"Why didn't you tell me? We could've made plans!" says Shoyo indignantly.

"Have you had lunch?"

"Well I." Shoyo frowns. "No."

"Plans," says Kenma.

Then Shoyo beams, so wide across his face that Kenma wouldn't be surprised if it hurt. "I can't believe it," he says. "It's  _you_ , and you're so—I can't say I'm surprised," and Kenma doesn't know what that means, but if Shoyo's happy, then it must be a good thing. "You know Lev?"

Kenma nods, because Lev's left.

"Okay," says Shoyo, tightens his backpack around his shoulders. "Well, then, lunch! I'm starving. What do you want? Because I'm pretty okay with anything, but my roommate always makes me pork and egg…"

*

Three months later finds them in Kenma's dorm during the winter, Kenma's head on Shoyo's stomach as they play their 3DSes together.

They've exchanged schedules, made time for each other even outside of video games and gotten to know each other better face-to-face. Shoyo is a constant ball of energy, and even though Kenma doesn't play volleyball, he likes watching Shoyo. Kuroo plays volleyball too and calls Kenma a traitor because he's never watched him play. But Shoyo just fascinates him.

As it turns out, Shoyo lives in the dorm building across from him, sometimes gets home much later than Kenma and sometimes earlier. He's met all of Kenma's friends and Lev makes fun of them sometimes because he knew the both of them before they know each other. Shoyo's roommate is a scary looking guy who eyes Kenma all the time whenever he's over. Shoyo says it's just because before he talked about Kenma all the time that his roommate wasn't sure if Kenma was safe or not.

December isn't the ideal time to go out and pick flowers, so in Animal Crossing, Kenma picks flowers from his own town, plants them in Shoyo's. They're bright orange. He tilts his head back and sees Shoyo smiling at his 3DS in response.

"So," Shoyo says. "Did you get me any games for Christmas?"

"Mm," says Kenma. "Maybe."

"Oh come on, you can tell me, you know! I mean, you want me to play more games with you, don't you?"

Kenma smiles. "Sure," he says.

Shoyo whines, "Kenmaaaaa," and Kenma hits him with his net in the game, making Shoyo squawk. He stops asking, though, and Kenma imagines it's because Shoyo knows the answer.

Shoyo grins down at him in real life, and Kenma loves that this is better.

  
  



End file.
